What You Missed This Week In Pop Culture: New Music Friday, Wedding Bells, & More

Every single day you can always expect a new scandal or headline popping up in your social media feeds about your favorite Hollywood celebs. However, while we always make sure to keep up with our favorite actors and musicians, there is always so much going on every news cycle that there’s no way that we can possibly keep up with every single thing happening in Tinseltown. So you can be your BFF’s go-to-gal with everything celebrity-related, we’re here to give you a quick rundown of the most important stories that surfaced this week in the crazy world of Hollywood.
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On Friday, 10/20 a ton of new music hit the web — and it’s safe to say that pop music fans everywhere were overwhelmed with all the new song options.

Taylor Swift’s Gorgeous debut:

Taylor Swift released her third single “Gorgeous” from her upcoming studio album, “Reputation.” Although Tay swore in “Look What You Made Me Do” that “Old Taylor” was dead, this newest song definitely feels remnicent of her older work and brings us back to her roots as she’s pining over a gorgeous guy yet again.

From experience, people already know Taylor’s lyrics to be both sickeningly sweet and hopelessly romantic, so from the first listen, this new song seems par for the course. On the surface, the song comes off like she was regressing from the lyrical growth that she’d displayed with the previous two singles that she’d recently released. But “Gorgeous” is almost too on the nose, too “cutesy,” seemingly self-aware, even.

Reviews of the song have been mixed but this is Taylor Swift that we’re talking about, so no matter the critical reception, it’s a guaranteed hit. The bop already shot up to number one worldwide on iTunes.

For those of you living under a rock, you can check out the rest of her album in a little over two weeks when it finally drops on November 10.

Niall Horan releases his first solo album:

British boyband One Direction just might be the first group to ever have every single member go on to have successful solo efforts after disbanding. Just five months after member Harry Styles released his self-titled debut album, it’s now Niall Horan’s turn to dive into the solo pool and make some splashes.

The 1D Irishmen has quietly made a name for himself with his acoustic, ballad-y tunes and he’s finally released his much anticipated solo album, Flicker on Friday, Oct. 20. Always branded “the cute blonde one” in the band, since going solo, Niall has effortlessly showcased several new sides of himself.

While every single song might not be your style, there’s something for everyone with Niall’s range on the album. He definitely gives off the Ed Sheeran vibes, but his music is also uniquely himself — as shown with his first two hit singles off of the album, “This Town” and “Slow Hands” and only further proven by the other tracks on Flicker. Our favorites (so far) are “Flicker,” “Seeing Blind,” and “On My Own.”

Niall’s success (heck, that of all of the other 1D members’) make us feel like proud Directioners. Those years of stanning didn’t go in vain.

Liam Payne stays sexy with Bedroom Floor:

Speaking of 1D, Liam Payne also had a release this week (hmm wonder if this was intentional). After his huge hit, “Strip That Down” came out last spring, Liam provided us with yet another one of his Justin Timberlake-esque songs, this one called “Bedroom Floor.”

The song is very sexy. While this new “Bieber look” that he’s been sporting since leaving One Direction feels unauthentic (TBH), his music is pretty damn catchy. So, props to him and his producers because this one is a club banger.

After years listening to the cute, upbeat pop tunes that 1D would churn out, it’s fun hearing the ~new directions~ (pun totally intended) the individual members are going with now that they have the freedom that they do as solo artists.

(Side note: Nick Jonas also released a track called “Home” from a movie called Ferdinand, coming out this December.)

New Princess on the horizon?

WENN

Potential princess-to-be Meghan Markle may have just taken a huge step to a royal engagement last week. According to The Daily Mail, Prince Harry took Meghan to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth, signifying a possible jump forward in their relationship. The site reports that they had an hour-long tea session (we mean a literal meeting over tea, though they are ~The Royals~, so we’re sure some tea was *spilled* as well… if you know what we mean). Apparently, everything went over smoothly with it being Meghan’s first official meeting with the Queen.

This comes shortly after the couple made their first joint public appearance together at the 2017 Invictus Games. According to insiders, this means they’re “as good as engaged.” Will there be wedding bells in the near future?

A Jonas gets engaged

DNCE frontman, Joe Jonas took to his Instagram this week to officially announce his engagement to Games of Thrones star Sophie Turner.

According to US Magazine, the middle Jo Bro proposed to his girlfriend of one year Oct. 15. The 21-year-old actress was said to have been in total shock. (And at 21… can you really blame her?!) Obviously she said yes, making it the second GoT wedding in the works — since Kit Harington and Rose Leslie> got engaged just over a month ago.

The announcement lead to hundreds of thousands of well wishes. Joe’s famous ex, Demi Lovato even hoped online to send her congrats.

With both Joe and older brother, Kevin, both happily locked into loving relationships, only younger brother Nick remains on the market. Who will steal his heart?

Playboy first transgender cover

In the first issue since founder Hugh Hefner’s passing, Playboy has unveiled French model Ines Rau as the November 2017 Playmate — marking the publications first transgender cover model.

Speaking to Playboy, Rau spoke of how being approached by the publication brought back memories of how much she’s had to face and what a pivotal moment this offer was for her.

“When I was doing this shoot, I was thinking of all those hard days in my childhood,” she said. “Nudity means a lot to me since I went through a transition to get to where I want to be.”

“And now everything happening gives me so much joy and happiness. I thought ‘Am I really going to be a Playmate—me?’ It’s the most beautiful compliment I’ve ever received,” she added.

The magazine wanted to counter any “flack” from loyal subscribers by comparing the current reception to the reaction that the first African American Playmate in 1965 received. Playboy wanted to make it clearly known that they stand unequivocally by their new cover model and are proud to have er. Here’s to more inclusivity to more major publications in the future!

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That’s all for this first (!) installment of This Week in Pop Culture, stay tuned for a new one next week. Because while celebs may go stale, you can count on the gossip to always stay fresh.